why is leonardo da vinci buried in France and not in his hometown in Italy?

Answer 1

I've studied Leonardo for a long time now and feel as though I know him very well. Before we start I must let you know that Leonardo didn't have a great sense of a place called home, such as Vinci where he was born or Florence where he was apprenticed to Verrochio. He simply went where the money was and also where he had plenty of opportunity to persue his own interest such as the complex mechanics of the human body and nature.

Thus Leonardo chose to go to France and spend his final years at Clos Luc near to Amboise castle. I was there in October and it's a wonderful place but that's besides the point. Leonardo went where opportunity took him and I believe that he would have been happy to be buried in France. He certainly knew his time was short as he made a his will only a couple of weeks before he died and made no attempt to return to Italy to die or even spend his last days there. I feel that Leonardo had a bit of a soft spot for Italy as he tended to include parts of the Italian landscape which were familar to him in his paintings but his quality of life was more important to him. He needed money, security, reassurance of his skill as though he was extremely talented, he sometimes thought his work was lacking somehow. He always kept horses and Clos Luc had stables etc.

A good point also made by one of the other respondees is that it perhaps would not have been practical or politically possible at the time to return Leonardo's body to Italy in any case.

Answer 2

In 1515, François I of France retook Milan, and Leonardo was commissioned to make a centrepiece (a mechanical lion) for the peace talks between the French king and Pope Leo X in Bologna, where he must have first met the King. In 1516, he entered François' service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé (also called "Cloux"; now a museum open to the public) next to the king's residence at the royal Chateau Amboise, where he spent the last three years of his life. The King granted Leonardo and his entourage generous pensions: the surviving document lists 1,000 écus for the artist, 400 for Count Francesco Melzi, (his pupil and allegedly one of the great loves of his life, named as "apprentice"), and 100 for Salai ("servant"). In 1518 Salai left Leonardo and returned to Milan, where he eventually perished in a duel. François became a close friend. Some twenty years after Leonardo's death, François told the artist Benevenuto Cellini that he believed that "No man had ever lived who had learned as much about sculpture, painting, and architecture, but still more that he was a very great philosopher."


Clos Lucé, in France where Leonardo died in 1519.Leonardo died at Clos Lucé, France, on 2nd May, 1519 (Romantic legend said that he died in François' arms). According to his wish, 60 beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise. Although Melzi was his principal heir and executor, Salai was not forgotten; he received half of Leonardo's vineyards.

Answer 3

Probably because Leonardo was invited to France by king Francis 1st in his late years and stayed there until death. Repatriating a dead body was hardly possible during 16th century, because of low-speed transportations at hand.

Answer 4

Because most of paintings he made was theme based for france and also he died in france and it would take long time for his corpse to go to Italy and hence it will become spoiled.